Machine-to-machine communications (M2M) is a network-based application and service that focuses on intelligent machine interaction. In M2M, a wireless or wired communication module and application processing logic are embedded in a machine for implementing data communication without manual intervention, so as to satisfy informatization requirements of a user in aspects such as monitoring, commanding and dispatching, data collection and measurement. FIG. 1-a shows a typical M2M system architecture, where various M2M terminals (for example, a sensor and a microcontroller) access an M2M service management entity (Service Capability Layer, SCL) directly or remotely through an M2M gateway, and in various M2M applications (for example, electricity metering and intelligent traffic), data collected by the M2M terminals is acquired or the M2M terminals are remotely controlled and managed through a service capability that is provided by the M2M service management entity.
An overall objective of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute for Machine-to-Machine Communications (ETSI M2M) is to create an open standard for M2M communications to promote establishment of a future network that integrates various devices and services, enable an M2M service to have interoperability, and enable the M2M applications to share a basic service and be implemented independently of a network. In the EISI M2M standard, a location application programming interface (API) is defined on an mIa interface between an M2M application and the M2M service management entity, so that in the M2M application, location information may be acquired and a change of the location information may be subscribed to.
An issue of privacy protection is closely related to the location information. The privacy protection refers to that when personal data in electronic communication is processed, a user has permission to specify when and where a third party is allowed to collect location information of the user, and has permission to delete permission for the third party to collect the location information of the user. Therefore, the privacy protection is an issue that must be considered for locating in human to human communications (H2H). For example, in a 3rd-Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) network, privacy protection is implemented by an independent entity such as a privacy profile register (PPR) or a gateway mobile location center (GMLC), and is a kind of privacy protection with a centralized architecture. Its implementation procedure is: After an external location service (LCS) client initiates a location acquiring command through an Le interface or an OSA-LCS interface, the location acquiring command is transferred to a home gateway mobile location center (HGMLC), or is further sent by the HGMLC to the PPR entity through an Lpp interface for privacy protection to check whether the external LCS client has permission to locate a user equipment (UE). If the external LCS client does not have the permission, a message is returned to the external LCS client; and if the external LCS client has the permission, a 3GPP locating process is further performed. A privacy protection mechanism includes a process of sending a privacy notification (that is, a locating notification) to the UE or a process of performing UE privacy authentication. In the latter process, the external LCS client has permission to perform locating only after the user confirms (for example, through a user interface of the UE) that the locating is allowed. In addition, different privacy permission may be set for one UE in different location areas.
For various industries employing M2M, for example, intelligent home, intelligent automobile, and intelligent electricity metering, an M2M device is used as a personal device and a location of the device identifies location information of a user to a great extent. Therefore, in the M2M, an issue of privacy protection that is similar to that in the H2H needs to be solved.
The ETSI M2M uses a resource-based Restful style. Service capability layers (SCL) of a device, a gateway, and a service management entity may all manage resources on the SCLs. This belongs to a distributed resource management system. In other words, in an existing M2M system architecture, no center entity that is similar to the PPR or GMLC in the H2H is to implement a privacy protection function.
Based on the existing M2M system architecture, in the ETSI M2M, an access right function is introduced, which forms an M2M system architecture shown in FIG. 1-b. However, many devices exist in an M2M system and not every device has a user interface (UI). Therefore, privacy notification or authentication cannot be directly performed on each M2M device like privacy notification or authentication is performed on UEs (all these UEs have user interfaces, for example, displays of mobile phones) in the 3GPP. That is to say, for a situation in which one user has multiple devices in the M2M system (for example, the user has MEM device A and device B), it is assumed that device A has a UI whereas device B has no UI, privacy notification or authentication may be performed on device A. For privacy protection for device B, although an access right function is introduced, device A still needs to be found through an mId interface first, and then privacy notification or authentication is performed on device B. In another aspect, even if a 3GPP locating function may be used through an NTOE interface, essentially, when the access right function, that is, a distributed access authentication function, is used to process a privacy protection mechanism, device B also needs to be found through the mId interface first. After an SCL of device B processes received information, if it is found that the 3GPP locating function needs to be used to locate device B, the 3GPP locating is used through the mId interface.
An underlying network of the mId interface may be a wired network, and may also be a wireless network. Therefore, a manner of finding device A through the mId interface first and then performing privacy notification or authentication for device B or a manner of finding device B through the mId interface first and then using the 3GPP to locate device B in the prior art may bring an additional signaling overhead. The unnecessary signaling overhead may cause network overload and occupy a normal data channel, thereby causing loss of operator's costs. For a wireless network with an air interface, a signaling overhead problem is more severe.